Posts tagged ‘Verizon Wireless’

In a discussion with reporters today, Verizon Wireless CEO Dan Mead hedged Comcast’s claims that LTE is a viable competitor to traditional landline cable modems. Anyone who uses both knows that it’s a ridiculous argument  LTE service is usually slower, less consistent, and comes with deeply restrictive data caps  but Comcast has been leaning on it as a supposed example of why competition is healthy in the broadband internet market. The end goal for the cable giant is to convince regulators that there’s enough competition in high-speed internet service that its pending acquisition of Time Warner Cable won’t create a monopoly or have a serious impact on consumer choice.

Verizon Wireless has officially responded to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler and his data throttling concerns. The Verge has obtained a copy of the carrier’s response, which was written by Kathleen Grillo, the company’s SVP of Federal Regulatory Affairs. In it, Verizon underlines the notion that customers will only experience slowdowns “under very limited circumstances.” It will only happen at “particular cell sites experiencing unusually high demand,” the letter reads. We’ve outlined the other factors that could result in reduced data speeds previously.

Verizon notes that any throttling will cease immediately when demand on a strained cell site returns to normal. “Our practice is a measured and fair step to ensure that this small group of…